The Richest Person in Each State

Last month Forbes put out a list of the richest people in each state. Some were obvious, like Bill Gates in Washington ($78.8 billion) or Warren Buffett in Nebraska ($70.2 billion). Other states, like Delaware, involved a little more digging by journalists Dan Alexander, Kerry Close, Maggie McGrath, Chase Peterson-Withorn, and Rebecca Spalding. (Robert Gore and Elizabeth Snyder from Gore-Tex hold the title of Delaware's most wealthy with $675 million). To settle on people, the journalists not only looked at public records but also valuations of private assets, like oil wells and coal mines. On the list, 40 of the wealthy people are self-made, leaving only 10 as what Forbes refers to as "do-nothing heirs."

Head over to Forbesto see the full list and find out what these people (or their parents) did to get so fabulously wealthy.

Pun enthusiasts will recall that we've covered Chris Durso's Foodnited States of America before. Now the project, which was inspired by Durso's young son, is available in map form in the Foodiggity store.

The holiday season is all about unity, but few topics are more divisive than which Christmas movie is the ultimate seasonal film. For every Home Alone fan, there’s an Elfenthusiast. To settle the score, the folks at online TV service provider CableTV.com have collected the top-rated yuletide films as rated over at AMC, and cross-referenced them with Google Trends state data from the past 10 years. They crunched the data, and compiled it into a map of each state’s favorite holiday flick.

Residents of Connecticut, Illinois, New York, and Vermont liked films set in their home states: Christmas in Connecticut, Home Alone (filmed in Winnetka, Illinois), It’s a Wonderful Life (set in the fictional city of Bedford Falls, New York), and White Christmas (set in the fictional town of Pine Tree, Vermont) all came out on top in those states, respectively.

As for Southern residents, they preferred Christmas cartoons and comedies, like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In New England, movie fans kept it cozy with the classics, including White Christmas and Miracle on 34th Street. Pockets of the Midwest appreciated National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, and residents of the Atlantic Seaboard and the Great Lakes region liked Home Alone and Elf. And out West, the Nightmare Before Christmas reigned supreme.

Check out the full results in the map above.

The Afternoon Map is a semi-regular feature in which we post maps and infographics. In the afternoon. Semi-regularly.